Category Archives: Iran

Assad claims he has restored sovereignty to Syria, but grievances remain deep for both vanquished and victors

The beginning of the end for Ghouta came first with a trickle. Desperate, hungry and scared, Syria’s newest displaced people walked a journey into the unknown, past Russian military police, towards loyalist soldiers who started checking names.

The same anxious ritual of the vanquished had been carried out before, in Homs, Aleppo, Qusair and most other places in the country, where seven years ago today the first spasms of open defiance began to rattle its ruthless rulers.

Saudi Arabia is world’s second biggest importer, with global US sales up by 25% in past five years

Nearly half of US arms exports over the past five years have gone to the war-stricken Middle East, with Saudi Arabia consolidating its place as the world’s second biggest importer, a report has shown.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) said on Monday that global transfer of major weapons systems between 2013 and 2017 rose by 10% compared with the five-year period before that, in a continuation of an upward trend that began two decades ago.

The visit by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has highlighted UK responsiblities in the devastating war

Two announcements marked the end of the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the UK on Friday. First came a £100m aid deal, promptly branded a “national disgrace”. While DfID says it will pool expertise to boost infrastructure in poor countries, critics say that it is meant to whitewash the reputation of Saudi Arabia, which needs such PR thanks to its leading role in the war in Yemen.

Enter announcement two, from BAE Systems. Saudi Arabia is near a long-delayed deal to buy 48 Typhoon fighters. The country’s military already have 72; some are being used in Yemen. The Campaign Against Arms Trade says the UK has licensed £4.6bn of arms sales to Riyadh since the bombardment began in 2015. Though Theresa May reportedly raised her “deep concerns” about the war with the crown prince, Britain boasts of providing humanitarian aid while supplying the weapons that fuel the world’s worst manmade humanitarian crisis and supporting the Saudi air campaign.

Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the Saudi Arabian throne, grabbed the world’s attention with a series of reforms in the kingdom, pushing back against the highly conservative establishment. His aim is to make Saudi Arabia a more open nation. However, the war in Yemen and his diplomatic rivalry with Iran have caused the international community to question how radical his changes really are as he begins a series of diplomatic visits to the UK and US

As Syrian regime bombs rain down, the White Helmets fear their families will be next

Saeed al-Masri rushed to the site of the bombing in the town of Saqba, in the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta.When the volunteer rescue worker arrived in the ambulance he realised it was his street that had been bombed. Then he realised it was his home. His three-month-old son, Yehya, was inside along with his wife.

“I cannot describe the scene,” he said in a phone interview with the Guardian about the incident earlier this month. “I have seen many children under the rubble, but I had been waiting for my boy for four years.”

Critics say $3.5bn humanitarian operations scheme would further limit access to 8 million people on the verge of starvation

A much vaunted Saudi plan to relieve the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen has been branded a tactic of war and a “cynical PR exercise”.

Riyadh announced its $3.5bn (£2.5bn) Yemen Comprehensive Humanitarian Operations plan in January, following months of criticism over the effect of a blockade that has left an estimated 8 million people facing acute malnutrition in a country where 75% of the population of 29 million are in need of aid.

Offensives seen as Assad regime’s bid to eliminate opposition and as challenge to security council’s authority

Syrian regime forces have launched a fresh ground and air offensive against rebel positions in the besieged and battered enclave of eastern Ghouta in defiance of a nationwide ceasefire ordered by the UN security council.

Witnesses said fighting erupted on several fronts on Sunday in what was seen as a possible last-ditch bid by Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president, to eliminate opposition resistance in Ghouta, near Damascus, before the 30-day ceasefire can be enforced.

Conservationists sound alarm over unprecedented slaughter of rare and endangered species by hunters at three lagoons

A million wild birds a year are now being killed illegally at a single wildlife site in Iran. That is the stark warning from conservationists who say highly endangered migratory species face being wiped out in the near future there unless urgent action is taken.

In a letter last week to the journal Science, the conservationists pinpoint the Fereydunkenar wetlands in Iran as the site of this widespread wildlife slaughter.

The response to years of atrocities enacted by the Syrian leader and his allies has been shameful. We should reconsider the use of force on them

It has been a quieter than average week in Syria. More than 400 people were killed in the unimaginably awful siege of eastern Ghouta, most of them civilians. But in the seven years since the regime of Bashar al-Assad set in motion the Syrian civil war, almost 500,000 people have died – well over 1,000 a week.

The truth is that brutality is winning in Syria because the democratic powers are afraid to confront it. As for Assad’s allies, Iran and Russia, the latest deaths will certainly not make them reconsider their support for him. Russia has again blocked a UN security council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Syria. Since the war began in 2011, Russia has vetoed 11 draft resolutions. Last week, it did not even need to veto, only to make clear that it would if the sponsors pushed their draft to a vote.